On Tue, Jun 20, 2023 at 06:01:00PM -0400, gene heskett wrote: > Alright then the question is, is policykit the solution, or do we > install it, then spend two weeks and wreck 7 installs configuring > it to work? In other words, get to the specifics or find a new horse.
I don't use synaptic, or xfce, or policykit. But just from reading this thread, it looks like: 1) Have a root password. SET A FUCKING ROOT PASSWORD. Seriously. It won't stop you from using sudo. It WILL allow you to use pkexec and single user mode (for example). You can always nuke the root password later if having a working system offends you. 2) Log in as you. Start your X session, if that's not already done. 3) Undo whatever crazy shit you've done in the past trying to work around stuff. This includes removing the MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE that you copied into root's $HOME directory the other day. 4) Open a terminal. 5) Run "pkexec /usr/sbin/synaptic". 6) If there's a popup, READ what it says. Do what it says. If it's asking for the root password, provide the ROOT password, not your own. If it's asking for your own, provide your own, and not the root password. 7) If there's text in the terminal window, READ what it says. Do what it says. 8) If you're still stuck, report back here with all the relevant details. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the text that appeared in the popup, and the text that appeared in the terminal window. Anything else that strikes you as unusual or important, report that too. The goal is to figure out what's different about YOUR setup compared to the setups of the people for whom it "worked out of the box". This may be something you're doing now, or something you changed in the past and have forgotten you've done. That's what makes this difficult. I do not know anything about pkexec or synaptic myself, so this is just a synthesis of the stuff others have said. Take all of this with approriate caveats.
